On Saturday, November 5, the Nigerian people were once again under attack by the terrorism group Boko Haram which led a Mumbai style attack on innocent civilians in several major cities including the large city of Damaturu. The terrorist bombed churches, mosques, and police stations in a series of coordinated suicide attacks in the three major cites as well fire fights in the city of Damaturu, the capital of the state. The attacks took the lives of 64 civilians as well as members of the police force which "has been the worst day of violence" since the insurgents began their campaign in 2009.
The similarity between the Mumbai terrorist attacks and this most recent raid attack in Nigeria is significant for two reasons. The first is that the previously stated connection with Al-Qaida are further confirmed by the strategic similarities between the Mumbai attacks and the Nigeria attacks which were conducted in a “raid” style which involves attacking several targets in a coordinated manner for the purpose of creating confusion and chaos and then quickly retreating. This could suggest that Boko Haram has been getting either training or at the least strategic support by Al-Qaida which is helps embolden the local sect of Boko Haram and raise them for the moment as a greater security threat. Secondly, the pattern of mimicking successful terrorist attack by other sects of terrorist which seem as least to have either a philosophical, if not direct, connection to Al-Qaida suggest that the possible spread of “pan Islamism” is now not only a philosophical call to arms but has been responded to by actions like the rise of terrorist groups in Africa and other regions in the world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/05/65-die-nigerian-terrorist-attacks
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